Tom's Hardware Graphics Charts: Performance In 2014

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Two years and two graphics card generations have passed since the last major update to our famous graphics card performance charts. It's time to get them back up to speed. We introduce modern benchmarks, new measurement equipment, and fresh methodology.

Battlefield 4 And Far Cry 3

Battlefield 4

Our graphics cards are presented with more of a challenge by Battlefield 4. Unfortunately, the only way to get repeatable results is through the single-player campaign. Playing this game online will almost always yield lower performance, typically resulting from a platform limitation. To our credit, we did search for a fast-paced, scripted sequence that'd serve as a suitable benchmark.

The video contains one of the two benchmark runs per resolution. We’re only using the second run for our results; the score is very reliable, since it's, again, scripted.

You'll find our test settings in the table below:

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Settings
Run 11920x1080 (1080p)API: DirectX 11Quality: Ultra
Run 23840x2160 (2160p)API: DirectX 11Quality: Normal
Loops2 per Resolution, 1 Used for Evaluation

Far Cry 3

By no means is Far Cry 3 a recent release, but it's still graphically challenging. And it's pretty safe to assume that any driver optimizations for this one are already rolled in to the software we're testing. This makes it a safe and stable performance benchmark, providing reliable control measurements for a long time to come.

Even though there are three benchmark runs per resolution, the graphics card is warmed up by running around the test's starting point after loading our saved game. The average of all three manual runs is then used for the performance results. We’re including panning to provide a nice panoramic view, a scene that includes plenty of distance, and a change from land to water. Check out the sequence for yourself.

One last time, the settings are in the table below:

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Far Cry 3
Run 11920x1080 (1080p)Quality: Ultra (Preset)
Run 23840x2160 (2160p)Quality: Normal (Preset)
LoopsThree per resolution
Igor Wallossek
32 Comments Comment from the forums
  • blackmagnum
    Thank you Tom's team for updating the charts. You're my goto when I'm upgrading my rigs. I'll be waiting... Bring on yesterday's gems.
    Reply
  • Pyree
    Awesome!
    Reply
  • outlw6669
    Nice writeup; I look forward to seeing the new charts!
    Reply
  • tomfreak
    First thing Tom need is to bench how PCIE 2.0 8x vs 16x perform on a modern top end GPU. Since 290X are passing the bandwidth from crossfire bridge to PCIE, may be is time to check them again? As I recall AMD do not recommend putting 290x XDMA crossfire on PCIE 2.0 8x. Please check this out
    Reply
  • cypeq
    First it's great to see new charts.
    I was never a fan of this style of benchmarking. It sure gives clean graph of gpu capabilities which we always needed. I would love to see new bottleneck analysis. Or at least parallel test done on midrange PC.

    Everyone should keep mind that these charts represent performance of <1% PC builds out there.

    13278215 said:
    First thing Tom need is to bench how PCIE 2.0 8x vs 16x perform on a modern top end GPU. Since 290X are passing the bandwidth from crossfire bridge to PCIE, may be is time to check them again? As I recall AMD do not recommend putting 290x XDMA crossfire on PCIE 2.0 8x. Please check this out

    If I recall correctly we are at this moment at the edge of PCI 2.0 x8 which = PCI 1.0 x16 . Next or following gen will finally outdate PCI 1.0 in single and PCI 2.0 in dual GPU configs as there will finally be noticeable bottle necks.
    Reply
  • mitcoes16
    Any Steam OS or GNU/Linux benchmarks?
    It would be nice to add any opengl crossplattform game as any ioquake based one or something more modern and test it under MS WOS and under GNU / Linux

    Better if it is future Steam OS to let us know the performance at the same game under MS WOS and under GNU/Linux.

    Also it would be nice to test at MS WOS with and without antivirus, perhaps avast that is free or any other of your preference.

    Last but not least, in opengl or in directx there are version changes and being able to split cards generations by opengl / directx version support would help as a current price / performance index based in your sponsored links prices.
    Reply
  • mitcoes16
    No 720p tests?
    720p ( 1280x720 píxels = 921.600 píxels) is half 1080p more or less
    1080p (1920\00d71080 píxels = 2.073.600 pixels)

    And when a game is very demanding or you prefer to play with better graphics playing at 720p is a great option

    Of course,latest best GPUs would be able to play at 4k and full graphics, but when we read the benchmarks we want to know also if our actual card CAN play at 720p (1k) or what the best ones can do at 1k to be able to compare

    Also even it is not a standard or accurate, for benchmarking purposes calling 720p (1k) 1080p (2k) and 2160p (4K) wouldbeeasier to understand in a fast sight than UHD FHD and HDR, that can be used too UHD (4k) FHD (2k) HDR (1k)
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    13278758 said:
    No 720p tests?
    720p does not stress most reasonably decent GPUs much and how many people would drop resolution to 720p these days with all the re-scaling artifacts that might add? In most cases, it would make more sense to stick with native resolution and tweak some of the more GPU/memory-intensive settings down a notch or two - at least I know I greatly prefer cleaner images over "details" that get blurred by the lower resolution and re-scaling that further distorts it.

    Considering how you can get 1080p displays for $100, I would call standardizing the GPU chart on 1080p fair enough: the people who can only afford a $100 display won't care much about enabling every bell and whistle and the people who want to max everything out likely won't be playing on $100 displays and $100 GPUs either.
    Reply
  • 2Be_or_Not2Be
    I really like to see the charts on how much noise a video card's cooling fans make. That makes more of a difference to me as limiting something distracting that I hear every time I game versus getting a louder card with 10 fps more.

    I also like seeing how current cards stack up performance-wise to previous generations. That really helps when you're deciding whether to upgrade or not.
    Reply
  • Ubrales
    Thank you! Good reference article!
    Reply